Avengers: Infinity War Directors Reveal Why Captain Marvel Didn’t Appear

Being someone who’s seen most movies released by Marvel Studios in theaters ever since Iron Man graced us with its presence ten years ago, I’m well aware that I shouldn’t leave my seat until the credits are done rolling. That said, I’m sure some of you reading this are also puzzled as to where folks are going when it’s pretty much common knowledge that we’ll be treated to some sort of stinger.

Naturally, Avengers: Infinity War continued this proud tradition by hinting at Captain Marvel‘s introduction. In a clever way that only comic book readers would understand (I’ll elaborate momentarily), Nick Fury sent an emergency transmission to Carol Danvers just moments before he was added to Thanos’ kill count.

Of course, there are probably those among you who are wondering why Captain Marvel didn’t show up in person for a cameo, but directors Joe and Anthony Russo do have some valid reasons for holding off. In fact, the former offered the following explanation in a recent interview:

“We want to save her reveal.”

Adding to that, here’s what Anthony had to say:

“We also wanted to, it was very important to us to commit… we wanted to commit to this ending very hard. We didn’t want to go past the ending very much.”

Considering how the film’s conclusion still has everyone talking, perhaps it was best to leave off on a shocking note rather than to give moviegoers a reason to cheer before leaving behind partially filled buckets of popcorn.

Still, this writer couldn’t help but notice the bewildered faces of those attending the same screening as I. For years, I’ve maintained that only a fraction of people entering cinemas actually read comics, so when all we were left to go on was Captain Marvel’s logo, I can at least understand why some were completely lost. Perhaps the filmmakers could’ve thought up a better way to tease the next addition to the MCU?

That said, we’ll all have to wait until 2019 to see how the saga unfolds when Captain Marvel opens in theaters on March 6, with Avengers: Infinity War‘s untitled sequel following on May 3.